Some movie reviews and comments....

[fajrdrako]

From the past six weeks:

Constantine (Keanu Reeves, Tilda Swinton, Rachel Weisz, 2005). I’ve been a fan of John Constantine since his first appearance in the DC comic Swamp Thing back in the early 1980s. He was created (I believe) by Alan Moore, a British writer who has at that time doing exciting things in mainstream comics and who soon after that wrote Watchmen. He was doing wonderful existentialist things with Swamp Thing (both the character and the comic) and in walked John Constantine, who looked and talked like Sting. An irreverent magician - or occult detective - who chain-smoked and had a bad attitude. He was magnificent.

Yeah, I know I said this would be a movie review and I'm talking comics. Bear with me here.

Things changed, as things in comics do, and Alan Moore stopped writing for DC, but John Constantine returned in a miniseries by Neil Gaiman called Books of Magic, a series about a boy who looked oddly like Harry Potter (years before Harry Potter ever existed), whose name was Tim Hunter and who had to choose whether to embrace magic and be the great magician he was destined to be, or to reject magic altogether. One of the occultists whose role was to teach him the implication of his choice was John Constantine.

Soon after that, Constantine got his own comic, called Hellblazer. I read the first couple of dozen issues, and enjoyed the character, but was disappointed to see it veer away from edgy dark fantasy into grotesque horror. After a while, tired of bug monsters and grossness, I pretty much stopped reading the comic, except to return to it from time to time, lured by the fascination of John Constantine. He had long since stopped looking like Sting, though I am convinced he was the model for Joss Whedon’s vampire Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The personality is the same, and the speech patterns.

So: 2005 rolls around, and there’s a movie about John Constantine. It ought to star James Marsters, but no, they cast Keanu Reeves. Don’t get me wrong: I like Keanu Reeves. A lot. I think he is a brilliant and underrated actor. But - John Constantine? Constantine is fair-haired, and looks older than his years - Keanu Reeves looks young at any age. Keanu Reeves has dark hair and didn’t even dye it. He doesn’t wear John Constantine’s trademark grubby tan trench coat. Worst of all, Keanu Reeves does the role with an American accent. He doesn’t even say bloody hell



It ought to be unsupportable. Instead, it all works. While the dropped the surface details of John Constantine they got the characterization and mannerisms right - translated to American, but it’s all there, the anger, the grumpy attitude, the reluctant heroism, the chain-smoking, even the lung cancer. And the lifestyle. Well... maybe not entirely the lifestyle... No sex. John Constantine in the comic tends to have a rather colourful sex life. But that’s okay - the movie did just fine without sex scenes and its hint of skewed sexual tension worked just fine.

The tagline of the movie: Hell wants him. Heaven won't take him. Earth needs him. Pretty much sums up the comic, no won issue #205. Lots of fights with demons - and angels, something more characteristic of comics like The Sandman and Lucifer than Hellblazer. I loved the special effects, especially in the wings on the angels and the depictions of Hell. That was worth the price of admission... that, and Constantine’s quirky living quarters on top of a bowling alley. Visually magnificent, in a dark fusion of film noir and grubby ultra realism.

The plot: a cop’s twin sister has gone insane and killed herself. Concerned for her sister’s soul, the cop enlists Constantine’s help. Constantine is always disturbed because he has discovered a demon breaking the laws of Heaven and Hell - appearing on our plane when it ought to be impossible. Taking on the case, he discovers why the rules have changed, and who caused it.

It’s a nice plot, not too complicated. I didn’t much like Rachel Weisz (whom I did like in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns - go figure). Besides Constantine himself, I loved Tilda Swinton and the angel Gabriel, who had just the right manner - sweet enough to be fully terrifying.

The movie gives Constantine, of all things, a sidekick - a young apprentice magician named Chaz. I thought this was a bizarre joke added by the movie-makers until, rereading old issues of Hellblazer, I reencountered a character I’d entirely forgotten - a London cabbie who was a friend of Constantine’s, a wacky guy named Chaz.

And rereading those old back issues of Hellblazer comics from the eighties, stories I’d entirely forgotten, I twice encountered my letters in the letters column - letters I’d written about stories I’ve long since forgotten. I am surprised... because I have forgotten, and because I didn't read them all.... what a hopeless writer Jamie Delano was, compared to the wonderful work on the comic by Neil Gaiman and Garth Ennis and those who followed. The artists for a while were even worse.

The Pianist. (Adrian Brody, 2002). Another biographical movie, the life of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Warsaw musician who lived in Warsaw in the late 1930s and 1940s. Who was Jewish.

Now, I have a problem with stories about Jews in World War II. They give me nightmares. They freak me out. I find them really hard to handle. (In fact, I am still scared remembering that chapter in my high school text book, which also gave me nightmares.) But I was feeling brave and I’d been told this was a good movie and reading A Thread of Grace had piqued my interest. So I got my nerve together and watched it.

There were no surprises. I thought the movie was good, but not brilliant. Reminded me of Anne Frank.

And yes, I had nightmares afterwards.

Cowboy Bebop. (Anime) I’d heard this series was good; I’d seen pictures of characters and was intrigued. I don’t think the characters I’d seen in the pictures were actually in the movie, which was a little disappointing, but made me want to track down the TV series. It’s a science fiction story set on Mars, in which a villain wants to poison the water and the assorted protagonists foil him. The characters were fun - but we only got to know them slightly in the movie. I was left wanting more.

Comments

[widget-alley.livejournal.com]

Cowboy Bebop- The Movie is good. It is not, however, Cowboy Bebop, the SERIES, which is much, much better. (Although the same characters are involved.) Cowboy Bebop the movie is basically an action movie, whereas CB the series is a Western/almost slightly noirish at times. Definitely, definitely rent Disc 1 of the series, and if you don't touch it ever again, get to Episode Five ("The Ballad of Fallen Angels"), because it's one of the best pieces of media ever. So, so good.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'll take your advice! The movie left me wanting more.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I have loved Cowboy Bebop for years. As widget_alley says, the series is much better than the film and explores the characters to a much greater extent, individually dealing with some in various episodes. I find the series dark, honest, and not my normal type of fiction (it's almost too hardcore for me at times - I like frilly wigs and pretty costumes and a general sense of safety, which I never feel in the Bebop world). The characters are basically the same, though the movie really diverts from the core threesome in the series (hero/villian/mysterious-woman-who's-had-relations-with-both), which I think is key to the storytelling. And you can't beat a villian who's name is Vicious.

I loved the Pianist, but I haven't watched it more than once. I love stories about Jews in WWII, and I guess it sounds morbid for me to say so. No nightmares here, but some edge of curiosity as to the amazing extremes of humanity (amazing strength and amazing cruelty). All said, I don't think I've actually watched very many films about the Jews in WWII...

No interest in Constantine.

Nearing page 150 of The Sparrow. I'm so glad you brought this author up - now I'm surrounding by her books and hesitant to leave Sparrow for a read of Thread of Grace (because one is due earlier than the other!). What shall I do? I'm so caught up and I don't read fast enough! lol.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I can't advise you on the reading, but perhaps "A Thread of Gold" can be renewed? I'd say, don't give up on "The Sparrow", and if you must, you can always check out "A Thread of Gold" again.